Teaching Virtues to Business Professionals

Abstract

The focus of many professional and executive level programs is the promotion of a secular world ethic applied to managerial decision making, but this approach has proven insufficient to develop wise managers because it is disconnected from deep-rooted spiritual and philosophical traditions and their cultural context. The Practical Wisdom Initiative brought together business professionals who seek to emphasize virtue and leverage spiritual capital in management decision making, which leads to wise decisions in strategic management, leadership, finance, and human resource management. This chapter discusses the need for this approach, how this approach can serve as a basis for a virtuous world ethic, and examples of how this approach is being employed to address a number of leadership issues in the knowledge age.